The Baranko Family: Back to reality

Our baby is 3 months old already, hard to believe! So you know what that means...(cue the foreboding music)...back to work I must go. It was an absolutely unbelievable, amazing, stupendous three months. I could definitely be a stay-at-home Mom, provided I still had Isolene here to help everyday and Matt here a lot of the time too, of course. Wait, that's not what being a stay-at-home Mom is like at all, I'm told. That's more like the lives that Hollywood starlet Moms have. Hmmm. Maybe check that. In any case, I guess all good things must come to an end, and reality has invaded in the form of my full-time job. Not that I don't enjoy my job, I do (for the most part). I just enjoyed the set-up I had for the past few months quite a bit more. Going back to work this time was so much more difficult than it was with just Luke. Now I have two babies to kiss goodbye in the morning, and having been home with Luke so much more made me realize everything I had been missing with him. Also, unlike when I went back to work the first time, he can talk. So now he can vocalize "Mommy, don't leeeeaaavee! Don't go to work today, stay home with meeeee!" Ahh! Straight through the heart! Anyway, going back to work was fine - I was suitably overwhelmed by the workload, concerned about work/life balance, and wondering about my decision to go back to work. You know, typical working Mom stuff. It didn't help that I caught a cold immediately and lost my voice, so was feeling crappy physically. But after the first week it started to get better, and now it isn't so bad. I just needed to get back into a new routine and reassure myself that I will still see my children, and I am not missing their whole lives. I do like what I do, and my life/career coach Katie Richardson just reminds me that I need to set boundaries to maintain my work/life balance. I can do it!

Anyway, tell me about Roon....(inside joke, sorry, movie quote from Big Business (best movie ever)).

Claire is 3 months old and still a big adorably chunky baby! She has officially passed Luke up in weight - he was less than her at 3 months despite being born a half a pound heavier. She is verbalizing so much, and laughs at so many things, and is holding onto toys and being much more interested in everything in general. She's getting so much more interactive, it is really fun.

Weight: 15 lbs

Length 25.5 inches

Here are some other cute pictures from the week. Not much news to report on the Luke front. He has a toy phone that he got from Aunt Diane & Uncle Garry that he calls his "iphone" (how about that branding?! I have to appreciate it as a marketer myself). Anyway, he carries his iphone around and asks me to "smile, Mommy!" so he can take my picture, he even presses the little button on it. So cute how he mimics me with my phone. We tried to have him sleep in his bed without the bed rail up because he rarely moves around when he sleeps. But wouldn't you know it, the night we try to do this he wakes up in the middle of the night all tangled up in his blanket. I was watching him on the monitor for a couple seconds as he tried to stand up and re-cover himself. I shot down the hall as soon as I saw what he was trying to do, but before I got there he lost his balance amid all the sheets and stuff and fell out of bed on his head! He was pretty shaken up, but then went back to sleep pretty quickly. We'll have to try the no bed rail thing again another day.

First time on the swing!

First time on the slide!

She loved it!

On Saturday we had a nice visit with Katie's Dad and girlfriend. They were in town from Tucson for Bobbi's son's graduation from the Great Lakes Naval Station, not 10 minutes away from us.

Saturday night out on the town with my former swim friends!

Sunday we hosted a brunch for the Eichinger side of the family since Dan, Amy and their kids were in town from Springfield. It also was Uncle Mike's birthday and Dan & Amy's anniversary. This is their pose when I asked to take an anniversary picture of them. Typical:) They're so funny.